Oct 3, 2011

CLASSIC REVIEW: ssm the hunger

As Spider-Island continues and Anti-Venom's (and Eddie Brock's) fate remains to be unseen, I thought I would go back and reread the last time Eddie Brock 'died' in The Spectacular Spider-Man: The Hunger.

The Story: Spider-Man is investigating a series of attacks which leave the victims drained of their adrenaline. He soon discovers the symbiote is responsible and is planning on leaving Eddie Brock to combined with a new host.

The Good: The Symbiote - This is the first time I can remember the symbiote being treated as an actual character, with feelings and a motive. It had minor dialog in the past, but never communicated like this. It is also the first time that I felt the symbiote was really the one in control; seeing it like this made me actually want a story where it takes command and jumps from host to host to terrorize Spidey. Eddie - If you don't feel for Eddie after this story, you'll never feel for any character. His struggle with wanting the symbiote to want him and wishing it would of never found him in the first place really sets the tone for his Anti-Venom days.

The Bad: Pretty much everything in Issue 5 - Spider-Man. Instead of taking a dying man to the hospital to get help, is the best solution to slap him on his back and force him to bond with an alien? The Symbiote's Child. What ever became of that? The Permanent Bond. Since they symbiote bonded with Eddie on that fateful night, how did it bond with Mac or Eddie? Does the symbiote have any control over who it combines with or would it of bonded with anything that got slung into its general vicinity?
Granted these are complaints I have with the knowledge of whats to come, but still with throwing things like this into the plot you would hope the writer had plans (maybe he never got the chance) to execute in future stories.

The Overall: 3.75 outta 5. It really isn't a bad story, I just wish they would of took the groundwork they laid and expanded upon it. I would of loved if they 'killed off' Eddie by just making him a shell that the symbiote uses to keep its shape and create a whole persona for the symbiote before bringing Eddie back (no one stays dead forever). However, it is a pivotal story by setting the stage for Eddie to sell the symbiote, get cured of his cancer, become AV, and Flash ultimately securing the title of Venom.

Also if you enjoy Humberto Ramos' ASM Spider-Island art, he also does the pencils for this story.